Recently, she had spent a lot of time walking around in the bloody freezing streets of Tokyo, Minako realised while she and Jadeite strolled aimlessly around the city, changing topics as frequently as the traffic lights shifted from green to red and back again in a never-ending circle of rules that could easily be followed for the benefits of all. Life could be so simple.
You're getting all philosophical because of traffic lights? Great, the time has obviously come to face the truth: I need a psychiatrist.
The man on her right chuckled, and a genuine smile spread on his face. The senshi raised an eyebrow inquiringly, before it hit her. "You can do that mind-reading thing again, right?"
The chuckle turned into laughter, and she swatted him on the arm with the full force of a twenty-two year-old student. Venus' strength was reserved for other occasions.
"That's not fair! Really, Ando, it isn't!" But her voice was merry, and the shitennou briefly marvelled at how quickly she taken to both his new name and to his presence.
Despite being the one to have regained the most memories, some things only resurfaced from the depths of Minako's mind when triggered by the person they revolved around in the first place. Venus and Jadeite had been friends in the Silver Millenium, and not of the distant kind. He alone of the other shitennou had been aware of the blossoming, yet difficult romance between his general and the leader of Serenity's guard, and he hadn't found out about it by reading her mind. She had told him on her own accord, a circumstance that led to a loud shouting match with the normally so controlled Kunzite.
But then, getting him to show emotions of whichever kind was always my main ambition, wasn't it?
Ando remained silent this time, not giving away whether he had followed her thoughts or not.
Anxious to steer clear of the more problematic topics in their repertoire, she emphatically stated: "Can you tell me how it is humanly possible that a blonde woman and a men with a mop of black hair produce a baby with bubble gum-pink locks?"
The next half an hour was spent on what she knew about the so-far unconceived Chibi-Usa and some of the funnier stories about her visits from the future, elegantly navigating the conversation away from the lurking cliffs. Several passers-by regarded smiled at the joking and laughing pair, wrongly assuming that were a couple.
"We take a turn left here", she quipped at the next crossroad. After a few more or less subtle directions, it begun to dawn on him that they weren't wandering around nearly as aimlessly as she had made him believe.
"I see you are still sneaky."
Her blue eyes widened in mock innocence. "I have never been sneaky, my dear. Never ever. In my life. In any of my lives, come to think of it." Her steps had not slowed during the exchange, and apparently wouldn't until they reached their destination.
" So you expect me to just follow you around like a lovesick puppy? Wrong man, Minako dearest. Or does my hair look white to you? I sincerely hope not. I might not be as vain as Ando, but I would hate to age before my time." He regretted the words as soon as they had left his mouth. Damn it.
" Well, you do look... sort of alike, really...I mean...You're both ...men, you know?" She finished lamely, and pretending that she was okay swiftly began to eat up most of what was left of her steely resolve not to run home and hide under her covers whenever his name or person was mentioned. Been there, done that and it hasn't helped.
Ando snuggled deeper into his scarf, feeling shame and regret sharpening their knives.
"I'm not cross with you, Ando. I'm fine." He sceptically faced her again, but kept his tongue in check so as to not spoil the mood any more than already done. They might have left the park to give Mercury and Umino some time to reconcile, but their own reunion as friends was just as important and he was on the best way to ruining it with his verbal idiocy.
"But seeing as the mood is dampened anyway, how about I tell you where I am taking you?" The people passing them by on the now crowded streets were blissfully unaware of all the emotional baggage that had just been dumped on the corner of Stupidity and Foolhardiness, and to say he envied them in their obliviousness was the understatement of the century.
"Why, oh why am I certain that I'm not going to like this? Let me guess, you are taking me to Mount Doom, ready to throw me in the lava." Ando's meek attempt to lighten the mood again failed spectacularly, for Minako's face had taken on the same solemn expression it had had in the park.
"Close. We are going to a shrine."
"How exactly is a shrine close to Mount Doom?"
She responded by finally stopping and gesturing up a long flight of stairs.
"I will go up and tell her about you, and if you want me to, and if she allows it, I will come and get you in a minute."
A bus stopped at the station right in front of them, and a number of chatting girls escaped it and begun to make their way to the shrine. They were going to pray for a good result in today's math test, for a date with the boy they secretly fancied and maybe, just maybe they would remember someone they had lost.
He looks so stricken.
She immediately reached for his hand and gave it a quick squeeze, giving him whatever reassurance she could.
Fantastic, the senshi of love reunites loved ones and they look at me as if they were Anne Boleyn on her way to have her head chopped off.
His prolonged silence was rightly interpreted as a confirmation, so she ascended the stairs, hoping that she would play Cupid rather than Charon.